THE BLACKBIRD The showman's on the job!

THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Indicating the_ BLACKBIRD.] And that?

CHANTECLER Our humorist.

THE PHEASANT-HEN What does he do?

CHANTECLER Oh, he keeps busy!

THE PHEASANT-HEN Doing what?

CHANTECLER Trying never to appear a fool, and that's hard work.

THE PHEASANT-HEN Possibly--but most unattractive! [_They move towards the back._]

THE BLACKBIRD [_With a glance at the_ PHEASANT-HEN'S _scarlet breast._] Size up the highfalutin' dame!--Get on to the waistcoat will you?

CHANTECLER [_Continuing the round._] The hay-c.o.c.k. The old wall. The wall, when I sing, is alive with lizards, the hay-c.o.c.k bends to listen. I sing on the spot where you see the earth scratched up, and when I have sung, I drink in the bowl over there.

PHEASANT-HEN Your song then is a matter of importance?

CHANTECLER [_Seriously._] The greatest.

THE PHEASANT-HEN Why?

CHANTECLER That is my secret.

THE PHEASANT-HEN If I should ask you to tell me?

CHANTECLER [_Turning the conversation, and showing a pile of brushwood tied in bundles._] My friends, the f.a.gots.

THE PHEASANT-HEN Stolen from my forest!--So what they say is true?--you have a secret?

CHANTECLER [_Dryly._] Yes, Madam.

THE PHEASANT-HEN I suppose it would be useless to insist--

CHANTECLER [_Climbing on the wall at the back._] And from here you can see the remainder of the estate, to the edge of the kitchen-garden, where they ply at evening a serpent ending like a sprinkling can.

THE PHEASANT-HEN What?--This is all?

CHANTECLER This is all.

THE PHEASANT-HEN And do you imagine the world ends at your vegetable-patch?

CHANTECLER No.

THE PHEASANT-HEN Do you never, as you watch, far overhead, the wedge of the south-flying birds, dream of vaster horizons?

CHANTECLER No.

PHEASANT-HEN But all these things about you are dreary and poor and flat!

CHANTECLER And I can never become used to the richness and wonder of these things!

THE PHEASANT-HEN It is always the same, you must agree!

CHANTECLER Nothing is ever the same,--nothing,--ever,--under the sun! And that because of the sun!--For _She_ changes everything!

THE PHEASANT-HEN She--Who?

CHANTECLER Light, the universal G.o.ddess! That geranium planted by the farmer's wife is never twice the same red! And that old wooden shoe, spurting straw, what a sight, what a beautiful sight! And the wooden comb hanging among the farmer's smocks, with the green hair of the sward caught in its teeth! The pitchfork, stood in the corner, like a misbehaving child, dozing as he stands and dreaming of the hay-fields! And the bowl and skittles there,--the trim-waisted skittles, shapely maids, whose orderly quadrilles Patou in his gambols clumsily upsets! The great worm-eaten bowl whose curved expanse some ant is always crossing, travelling with no less pride than famed explorers,--around her ball in 80 seconds!--Nothing, I tell you, is two instants quite the same!--And I, sweet lady, have been so susceptible ever, that a garden-rake in a corner, a flower in a pot, cast me long since into a helpless ecstasy, and that from gazing at a morning-glory I fell into the startled admiration which has made my eye so round!

THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Thoughtfully._] One feels that you have a soul.--A soul then may find wherewithal to grow, so far from life and its drama, shut in by a farmyard wall with a cat asleep on it?

CHANTECLER With power to see, capacity to suffer, one may come Ito understand all things. In an insect's death are hinted all disasters. Through a knot-hole can be seen the sky and marching stars!

THE OLD HEN [_Appearing._] None knows the heavens like the water in the well!

CHANTECLER [_Presenting her to the _PHEASANT-HEN_ before the basket-lid drops._] My foster-mother!

THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Politely approaching._] Delighted!

THE OLD HEN [_Slyly winking at her._] He's a fine c.o.c.k!

THE PHEASANT-HEN He is a c.o.c.k, moreover, for whom that fact is not the only thing in the world!

CHANTECLER [_Who has gone toward_ PATOU.] There, my dear boy, is a Hen with whom one can have a bit of solid conversation.

SCENE SEVENTH

THE SAME, _the_ GUINEA-HEN, _and the whole_ POULTRY-YARD

_Cries outside, nearer and nearer,_ "Ah!--" _Enter all the_ HENS _in tumult, preceded by the agitated_ GUINEA-HEN.

THE BLACKBIRD [_In his cage._] The next course will be Guinea-hen!

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Running to the_ PHEASANT-HEN.] Ah, my dear, my dear, my dear!--A beauty, a very beauty!--We have come to make your acquaintance, my dear!

[_General admiration,_ "Ah!--" _The_ PHEASANT-HEN _is surrounded.

Conversation, cries, clucking._]

CHANTECLER [_Watching the_ PHEASANT-HEN, _aside._] How well she walks, with free and graceful gait!--[_He looks at the_ HENS.] So differently from my Hens! [_Irritably, to the_ HENS.] Ladies, you walk as if you had blisters! You walk as if you trod on your own eggs!

PATOU No mistaking the symptoms! He is very much in love.